Interview: Edie Carhart, Disney Mermaid

Tell me how you became a Disneyland mermaid?

EDIE: I was told about it by a friend of mine. She had been a mermaid the year before, in 1965. She told me to go up to Disneyland at this date and time, wear a bikini, show up to the pool area, and just go for it!

How many other people were there?

EDIE: I have a newspaper clipping that claims it was around 100 girls. In one of the photos you can see everyone standing around the lap pool. There were LOTS of gals!

How hard was the audition process? What did they ask you to do?

EDIE: You know, that's the part I remember so little about because I was terrified to do the swimming! I was a surfer and I'm used to really big waves and such, but I wasn't such a strong swimmer in the pool.

Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing. The main thing I remember was that we went in groups of eight. We'd have to go the length of the pool, up and back. I didn't like to do the crawl then (known today as the freestyle), so I just held my breath all the way to the other end, took a gulp of air, and held my breath all the way back! I guess I did fine on the swimming.

I think they may also have made us do a lap of back stroke and side stroke as well. Other than that, I honestly don't remember anything really formal. There were a lot of people around, and everything seemed very informal. A lot of people talked to me, I talked to them, and then I just noticed that not as many gals were standing around anymore. I think they had us put the tails on at that point and then do some more work in the water to see if we drowned or not! The only requirements I were aware of was having long hair, being able to swim, balance on the tail, and smile a lot!

click an image to expand and read notes:

Edie Smiling

Edie Still Smiling

Mermaids! Mermaids! Mermaids!

Edie's Acceptance Letter

Edie's Paycheck

So you had to prove that you could swim first and then they put on the tail?

EDIE: Yes, I think so. It's amazing how little I paid attention to all of that because I was just looking around at everything and going "this is so weird!" It was fun, though. They may have just watched us a lot while we were standing around in our bikinis. You know, to see how we moved and how we looked and interacted with each other.

I do know that they chose five of us, because they used a mermaid from the previous year. So there were six: three blondes, three brunettes.

Was it harder to swim with that tail on?

EDIE: Well, you had to get used to that. Jenny, who was our head mermaid, had been there the year before. She coached us on all of that. They had us put on tails at the tryouts to see if we would flounder or not.

After we were hired, we had our own tails made by the production department from neoprene wet suit material sprayed green with painted black scales. They fit nice and tight, and they had a great big fluke on the bottom. We did have to learn how to maneuver, do the dolphin swim, hang upside in the water, and spin the tails around. Once we got used to it, it became pretty natural! We could go really fast!

So it was almost like a mermaid school?

EDIE: Pretty much. When we got our tails, we all had to get comfortable with them and work with them. The way that we entered the lagoon is that we would come out of our little trailer in our little mumus, covering our bikinis, and then we would enter into this long tube thing that was disguised as something else. I don't remember what, though. We would slide into our tails in there, and then at one end of it we could push off. It was automatically under water. We could take a big gulp of air and do the dolphin swim and pop up in the middle of the lagoon. That way people wouldn't know where we came from. When we changed shifts, we would re-enter the tunnel the same way. We'd work an hour in the water and an hour out, in shifts of two.

What was a typical day in the life of the mermaid?

EDIE: We'd get to Disneyland before it opened and go into our trailer in the back. We kept our tails locked up there. We would change and then whoever was on the first shift would be in the water by the time the park opened. Then we would play around for an hour, and the others would show up and we would leave. We did four shifts a day, and when we weren't in the water we were supposed to be in the trailer. But of course, we snuck out! Our long, wet hair and mumus were dead giveaways: who else runs around Disneyland looking like that?

Did anyone ever recognize you guys?

EDIE: Oh, yeah! But we tried to keep an eye out and be subtle about it. We just had a good time.

When in the water, were you interacting with the guests or were they too far away?

EDIE: They were viewing us from the railing around the lagoon, and our mermaid rock was in the middle. We couldn't really swim over to the railing because under the water was the track that the submarines took. We could see the submarines, because of the thing on top where the pilot would sit. When the submarine ride would pass, we would dive underwater. We'd smile and wave and do tricks and be cute for the folks on the ride. We had to learn how not to have a whole face full of bubbles coming out of our mouths, because then we'd look grotesque! It was such a kick to see the look on the people's faces!

Could you get pretty close to the submarine?

EDIE: Well, there was no barrier, but we had been given strict instructions because I think the year before some gal who had gotten too close and hurt her arm on the submarine. Now I don't know if that really happened, but we all knew not to get too close. We actually had a lot of room to swim around in there, anyway.

Were there any specific activities that you had to do each day?

EDIE: They wanted us to always have someone wave to the subs when they went by, about every 15 minutes, just so the people in the submarine could see us playing and swimming for them underwater. When there weren't submarines, we'd sit on that nice smooth rock on the middle of the lagoon, and wave our tails a bit.

Then they gave us these plastic combs to brush our mermaid hair with these nice pretend mirrors. They also gave us pretend instruments - lutes or lyres - to play. We didn't yell out at the crowd, but we'd wave at them a lot. We kind of played around and did whatever was fun. I remember one of the times, toward the end, I was with one of the gals out there, and we decided to act like robots. So we did everything like robots, our movements, everything!

There were only two mermaids at a time in the lagoon?

EDIE: Yes, because the six of us had to cover all seven days a week during the summer. So, working in shifts of two... yeah, we had to work a lot, and usually one group of two had off every day. It was just the summer months, and they stopped us toward the end of August. I don't believe they've had them there ever since.

Do you know why?

EDIE: I believe it was an issue with the chemicals in the water. You know, the chlorine, the fluoride, and all that were really hard. One girl had trouble with her eyes, and it was hard on our hair and skin. I was used to opening my eyes in salt water with the surfing, so I was used to that, but it was still rough. I personally didn't have too much of a problem with it, but some of the girls with the really blonde hair had their hair turn a little bit green!

Stuff Not to Skip

• Submarine Voyage Dedication with Mermaids
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99OMrsEag0A
• Matt Crandall
  http://vintagedisneyalice.blogspot.com
• Jeff Heimbuch's Bamfer Productions
  http://www.bamferproductions.com